Soft Condensed Matter Physics

AY2017/2018 Semester 2

This course provides an introduction to soft-condensed matter physics. Atomic and molecular forces. Hard-core repulsion. Polymers. Correlations in the fluctuations of solvent molecules; diffusion in fluids, electrostatics in solution. Poisson-Boltzmann theory. Electrophoresis; liquid interfaces and droplets. Lipid bilayers and vesicles; membrane fluctuations, cell mechanics; Colloids. Liquid crystal phases. Random aggregation and fractals; Viscoelasticity; Experimental methods - dynamic light scattering, self-assembling processes, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, measuring interactions with laser tweezers and tracking experiments.